Ethnicity and the African polity

A few years ago while in a ‘progressive’ and fairly prosperous African country, nearly every one of the many friends I made in my short stay introduced him or herself by identifying their ethnic origin. Initially, I didn’t understand what it was all about. 
 

I thought the ethnic groups they mentioned were part of their names. How wrong I was. I later learnt it was to point me to which part of the country they hail from, i.e. their ethnic origin. Well, I was stunned really.

Coming from another African country with over a dozen different ethnic groups, I was still shocked by how those friends/acquaintances introduced themselves. I was also shaken perhaps even more by the ease with which they did this. 

I am not pointing this out because I think people shouldn’t take pride in their origins, far from that. Personally, anyway, I find it more useful to talk about which of part of the country I grew up in than one’s ethnic origin.

For centuries ethnicity served as a convenient tool to create artificial barriers amongst the same people. The colonialists exploited it as part of their divide and rule strategy. And it worked very well for them. 

Some politicians of post-independence Africa gravely seek to rise to power and/or maintain their grip on the levers by playing the ethnic card particularly to the mobile vulgus, the fickle crowd.

One of the crucial legacies of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence hero, was the fact that he sought to build a nation in which each citizen saw (and conducted) him/herself as Ghanaian above every other consideration. But that foundation has not absolved Ghana from ethnic bigotry.

Ghana's elite forces

The inauguration of Ghana Army’s elite or Special Forces and navy seals at the country’s 55^th anniversary official celebrations at the Independence Square on March 6^th has triggered debates in some spheres. Some have raised questions about the ethnic composition of these elite forces and what exactly they are for. These elite units were established about three years ago.

Ethnicity is a major issue across Africa. In many nations, ethnicity takes central position especially in an electioneering year. This year, at least half a dozen elections are coming up in some of the continent’s most strategic countries. The list of countries scheduled to hold presidential (and parliamentary) elections include Senegal (presidential runoff, March), Guinea Bissau (March), Mali (April), Egypt (June), Sierra Leone (November), Ghana (December) and Zimbabwe (December).

Kenya has postponed its presidential and parliamentary elections to early 2013 but a new study by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) makes an interesting read. The report was presented to the Kenyan Parliament on Tuesday, March 6.

According to the report, the five big ethnic groups in Kenya – Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo and Kamba –disproportionately make up the work forces of public universities and other centres of higher education. 

The Big Five as they are generally referred to, make up 66 per cent of the country’s population. However they constitute 93 per cent of the jobs at Masinde Muliro University, 89.8 per cent at Moi University, 87.3 per cent at Egerton University, 86 per cent at Jomo Kenyatta University, 82.3 per cent at the University of Nairobi and 81.7 per cent at Kenyatta University.

Fifteen institutions were surveyed and of this, two-thirds, had most of their staff mainly from the same ethnic community as the vice-chancellor or principal.

At Bondo University College in Siaya county, Luos make up 84.3 per cent of the staff, Merus make up 83 per cent of the staff at Meru University College, Kisii garner as much as 79 per cent of the jobs at Kisii University College while the Mijikenda are the significant workers at the Pwani University College with as much as 71 per cent of the work force. The Luo, Meru, Kisii and Mijikenda are all ethnic groups in the country.

The Commission will release audit of the civil service and parastatals by mid-March to ostensibly inform the country to develop a more inclusive employment policy.

The Commission is mandated “to facilitate and promote equality of opportunity, good relations, harmony and peaceful coexistence between persons of different ethnic and racial backgrounds in Kenya and to advice the government thereof”.

In 2007, Kenya was forced to its knees as violence exploded to engulf much of the country after a disputed presidential election. The viciousness of the 2007 convulsion of Kenya following the December polls was fuelled by ethnic rivalries. About 1,500 died in the ensuing violence. Many more were injured and hundreds of thousands internally displaced. Some senior government appointees are facing trial at the International Criminal Court for their alleged incitement of the bloodbath that threatened to sink one of Africa’s most vibrant economies.

A little up north of the continent in Eastern Libya, local leaders on March 6 declared the region semi-autonomous, in what can only be described as a first step towards acquiring full autonomy from the rest of the country. After WWII and under King Idris, (whose great nephew Ahmed al-Senussi, has just been installed as head of the new Cyrenaica Provincial Council) Libya was divided into three main states and along mainly ethnic lines – Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the south-west and Cyrenaica to the east.

Gaddaffi in his last years in office became a champion of African unity after he failed to bring the Maghreb region behind him. His country may ironically just turn up to provide Africa with some ethnically "pure" states.